Professor defends research on Harry Potter’s influence over political beliefs, also finds ‘GoT’ and ‘House of Cards’ make people believe world is unjust

Millennials grew up in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Deciding who was the Hermione, Harry and Ron in your friend group, wishing for the end of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and  knowing that the correct way to say the “leviosa” spell is “levi-OH-sa” was built into the fabric of  our collective childhood.

Apparently Harry and friends are also part of the reason so many in our generation are liberals.

According to University of Vermont political science professor Anthony Gierzynski, Harry Potter fans skew left. His study came out in 2013 and was widely reported on, but now he is defending his research this week in a new Slate article.

Giezynski claims his study found that Harry Potter fans are “more open to diversity and are more politically tolerant than nonfans.” Potter fans are also “less authoritarian, less likely to support the use of deadly force or torture, more politically active, and more likely to have had a negative view of the Bush administration.”

Gierzynski reached his conclusions on Harry Potter’s political influence by surveying over 1,000 college students at seven universities around the country.

Among the people he surveyed, 60 percent who had read the books said they voted for Obama in 2008 and 83 percent had unfavorable views of the Bush administration.

“When we’re consuming entertainment stories it’s likely that we’re more susceptible to politically relevant messages—we’re relaxing, having fun, our political “guard” is down. Indeed, most people are largely unaware of the politically relevant content of that which they watch or read because they are not looking for it,” Gierzynski argued in the Slate piece. “And certain politically relevant messages are so ubiquitous throughout our culture that they become invisible to us. Take the overwhelmingly positive portrayal of guns in U.S. media—it’s rare to see a hero without a gun.”

He has also been working on additional studies about the political influence of other entertainment.

He found that watching Game of Thrones and House of Cards “reduced the tendency to believe in a just world.”